Babe Ruth was a giant. Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds are midgets by comparison. Aaron hit 755 home runs but did it in 3,298 games with 12,364 at bats. Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs in only 2,503 games with 8,398 at bats. Aaron came to the plate 3,966 more times, the equivalent of 7 seasons.

Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs in the days when field dimensions were much longer. Fences were pulled in by the time Aaron played. By Barry Bonds' day, baseball was doing everything in its power to see that records were broken so that interest in the game was prolonged. Balls were livelier. Bats were of better quality. Pitching mounds were lower.

Bonds' use of steroids is well-documented. We have seen what steroids have done for other hitters, Mark McGuire and Rafael Palmeiro, for example.

The big difference between Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds is seen in their batting averages. Ruth was a .342 lifetime hitter. Bonds' career average is .299.

Bab Ruth is inexplicable. He did not look like an athlete. He loved the night life. Yet, he hit home runs when no one else did. His season totals were often higher than those of other clubs.

Ruth was an outstanding pitcher for several seasons, compiling a 94-46 win/loss record with an ERA of 2.28.

Babe Ruth is still the baseball player against whom all others are measured.

Babe Ruth http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/ho.../Ruth_Babe.htm

No arguement here. To know that Bonds has passed Ruth and pobably will pass Aaron sickens me. To know that Macgwire and Bonds passed Marris, also sickens me. They are CHEATERS and nothing more. I saw a sign in the stands at one of the Giants' games that said, "Babe Ruth did it on hot dogs and beer!" I thought that just said it all. I just wonder exactly how many other records are tainted.

Babe Ruth will always be the one that all sluggers will be measured against. It doesn't matter if one comes along and hits 1000 home runs it will still be Babe Ruth.

The greatest and most consistent home run hitter and the greatest slugger ever

Hank Aaron, Harmon killebrew and Barry Bonds had 8 seasons with 40 or more home runs. They are all second to Babe who had 11 seasons with 40 or more. The clincher Babe Ruth never hit 40 until 1920 his seventh season in baseball, his career was already one quarter over, yet he is unmatched in number of 40+ home run seasons.

There have been 36 seasons with slugging percentages of .700 or better, Babe Ruth owns 9 of those, thats one quarter of that 36. Again Babe never slugged for .700 until his seventh season in baseball that was 1920, his career one quarter over.

Just thought it was worth mentioning, but through age 31, Alex Rodriguez already has EIGHT seasons of 40+ Home Runs. And with several more good years left, I do believe he has a good chance at a few more such seasons...so he could set a new record in that category.

Arod is an absolute stud who has thrived in this offensive era. He'll have a shot at not only passing, but shattering many records when all is said and done. One such record is strikeouts. He's struck out 120+ times in 9 of his last 10 seasons and is on pace to swing right past Reggie. If he plays through age 40, I think you can pencil Arod in for at least 5, probably 6 more seasons of 40+ hr and that'll give him 14 such seasons. Just like with many other numbers, it'll be up to us fans to put that feat into proper perspective, in part, by simply by looking at the number of times 40+ hr has been put up league wide.

JimCoyler's initial post was good. The only small issue I have, deals with the portion stating how Ruth looked nothing like an athlete. That may be true in later years, and it's certainly the general perception Hollywood encourages us to swallow, but for most of his career, and without question in his younger years, he was the very definition of an athlete. Tall, strong, quick, coordinated, seemingly without nerves, you name it. The man could do it all for much longer than people realize.

I would think that Alex barring injury may some day pass Babe's 11 seasons with 40 or more home runs and probably the career mark in total home runs held by Barry Bonds.

What I pointed out in my previous post was the fact that Babe Ruth accomplished so much in a short span of time, that is what separates him from the rest of the great home run hitters. His slow start owing to the fact that he was a pitcher only batting every 4th or 5th day in his first 4 seasons 1914-15-16-17 and a part time pitcher outfielder in 1918 and 1919 which was a short season 130 games. That he had no 40 home run seasons until his 7th season in the game, 1920. That he had 72 multiple home run games with Barry Bonds in second with 70 or 71 multiple home run games but having played 400 more games than Ruth did.

Member of the 700 home run club and he had only 49 career home runs after his first 6 seasons. My point yes Alex will probably end up passing Babes 11 seasons with 40 or more just as others have passed Babe in some numbers but in almost all cases those who pass him had many more chances, more at bats and more games, thats the difference.

Ruth's career AB/HR ratio of 11.76 is second to only Mark McGwire's 10.61 and some of Mark's numbers are suspect.

So one can see that Ruth is always in the mix the others are not, seasons with 40 HRs, seasons with 50 HRs, multiple home run games, home runs per 100 at bats, career home runs and AB/HR ratio Ruth is near the top in all of those stats. All around he has no equal in home run hitting and slugging.

My hope right at this time that the great AROD's name does not appear in that Mitchell report that came out today. He seems to be a bright spot in the game with all the talk about steroids.

The names in that report came out because Mitchell got lucky that the feds handed him a couple dudes. There are plenty of other players out there, who aren't known about, simply because their supplier didn't sing. Canseco recently stated that he was surprised Arod's name didn't show up in the report. Say all you want about Canseco, but he's been dead on about everything up to this point.

I don't buy into Conseco's remark about him saying that he's surprised that Arod's name didn't show up on that report. Is he saying that Arod's numbers make him suspect or is he saying that he knows something that leads him to believe that Arod may have used steroids.

This could be said about every single player in the game..........hey how do we know if so and so did or didn't use steroids, well... how do we know, why even bring it up Jose. I don't know, it's possible that Arod did use steroids that could be said about anyone.

Now what I stated in that first paragraph does not reflect on my opinion overall on Conseco and his early revelations. Right from the start I thought and I posted on a number of boards that I had no reason to not believe what Jose said. He was too specific with some of the names and circumstances of some who he said used steroids.

Many were calling Jose a jerk, a past liar and a rat. My view was even if he was a jerk and a rat that does not mean he is not telling the truth in that period a while back when he did mention a number of names. Also if he did lie in the past that does not mean he was not telling the truth when he revealed those names. Even a liar can tell the truth at times. I believed him right from the start. What mattered was not that he could be a jerk or a rat, so what he could have been truthful and it looks like he was.

On Arod, sure he could be a user but I would like to have heard Jose speak up more, why was he surprised.

I felt the same way about Jose when he came out with the book. Ya know what, when you want to catch a drug dealer, go to a drug dealer. When Vegas wants to catch cheats on the floor, who do they hire to monitor customers? Ex cons. Canseco has been the most credible person to this point. He was asked about the list of names and he simply stated that he was surprised there weren't more names on the list. The reporter asked specifically about Arod and Canseco again, said something about it being an incomplete list and left it at that. Use your rationale to put 2 and 2 together.

For what it's worth, the editor ( or now ex editor ) of canseco's book believes canseco has nothing on arod.